did succeed in getting out--he to take his chance eastward, while I went
south, lest he should prove a drag on me. But this I would not hear of, and
the matter was still undecided when our chance came suddenly and
unexpectedly.




CHAPTER XXV

HOW WE SAID GOOD-BYE TO AMPERDOO


We were well into the summer by the time Le Marchant was fully fit to
travel, and we had planned and pondered over that outer stockade till our
brains ached with such unusual exercise, and still we did not see our way.
For the outer sentries were too thickly posted to offer any hopes of
overcoming them, and even if we succeeded in getting past any certain one,
the time occupied in scaling the outer palisades would be fatal to us.

Then our chance came without a moment's warning, and we took it on the
wing.

It was a black oppressive night after a dull hot day. We had been duly
counted into our long sleeping-room, and were lying panting in our
hammocks, when the storm broke right above us. There came a blinding blue
glare which lit up every corner of the room, and then a crash so close and
awful that some of us, I trow, thought it the last crash of all. For
myself, I know, I lay dazed and breathless, wondering what the next minute
would bring.